The Lutheran Pioneer St. Louis — 1922, Page 75

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The Lutheran Pioneer.

75

workers had increased to 1,900, and the number of
congregations to thirty. Then came seven lean
years. Because of the great expense of erecting the
college-building at Greensboro, the mission treasury
labored under a heavy debt for years. However, not
only did God help us to pay off this debt, but alto-
gether unexpectedly He opened to us the door to
a most promising mission-field in the Black Belt of
Alabama. There our missionaries, during the past
six years, have been granted the privilege of carry-
ing the bright torch of the Gospel deeper and deeper
into the darkness of sin and vice, and farther and
farther into the jungles of superstition and heathen-
ism, and by the grace of the Holy Spirit hundreds
upon hundreds have been enlightened unto life
eternal. During the first six months of the present
year more than 200 persons have been received into
the communion of our Church by Baptism and con-
firmation in this field. Though our laborers are
already working at seventeen different places, we
may truthfully say that up to date only the surface
of this field has been scratched. It is a great and
most promising field. “Pray ye the Lord of the
- harvest that He will send forth laborers into His
harvest.” The work of our laborers in Alabama has
helped to add no less than 1,350 persons to our
Church in the past six years. The total baptized
‘membership of our Negro Missions at present is
3,725.

According to the last census we have a Negro
population in this country of 10,463,013. Thou-
sands, yes, hundreds of thousands of these are
churchless and sit in darkness and in the shadow
of death. Countless numbers of those who are con-
nected with some church nevertheless know nothing
of the grace of God in Christ Jesus. Their
preachers tell them nothing of this grace, but, in-
stead, these men, often illiterate and immoral, tell
them their own dreams and pretended visions. It
is almost incredible what all is done by these
preachers in the name of the Christian religion.
They care nothing for the spiritual welfare of their
hearers. Their chief aim seems to be to get as
much money as possible out the pockets of their
people. They are blind leaders of the blind. Most
of them have never studied at a theological school.
Many of them have not even a common school edu-
cation, and not a few of them are unable to read
and write. But they can bellow like the Biblical
bulls of Bashan. Shepherd and sheep often live in
open and flagrant sins and vices. How sad the lot
of these poor benighted people! That we are not

exaggerating may be plainly seen from a statement
of a competent and impartial person.

The well-known Negro leader Booker T. Wash-
ington (died 1915) asserts that “three-fourths of
the Baptist ministers and two-thirds of the Metho-
dists are unfit, either mentally or morally, or both,
to preach the Gospel to any one or to attempt to
lead any one. With few exceptions, the preaching
of the Colored ministry is emotional in the highest
degree, and the minister considers himself successful
in proportion as he is able to set the people in all
parts of the congregation to groaning, uttering wild
screams, and jumping, finally going into a trance.
One of the principal ends sought by most of these
ministers is their salary, and to this everything else
is made subservient. Most of the church service
seems to resolve itself into an effort to get money.
Not one in twenty [of these preachers] has any
business standing in the communities where they
reside, and those who know them best mistrust them
most in matters of finance and general morality. .. .
A large proportion of the church-members are just
as ignorant of true Christianity, as taught by Christ,
as any people in- Africa or Japan, and just as much .
in need of missionary effort as those in foreign
lands.” So far Booker T. Washington. What he
here states can be corroborated by our missionaries.

How do our missionaries work among these poor,
benighted, superstitious Negroes?

The principal work is done by the agency of
the mission school. In the thirty-five schools of
our Colored Missions, nine pastors, fourteen male
teachers, and thirty-five female teachers are engaged
in teaching. These schools have an enrolment of
approximately 2,800 pupils. Among the pupils may
be found such as have attained their majority and
are legally entitled to vote. Though these grown-
ups are often found in the primary classes, they do
not seem to make much of it. All shades of color
are represented. Some of the pupils are so light
that it is difficult to see why they should be classed
with Negroes. Most of the children come from poor
homes, and their poor clothing bears eloquent testi-
mony to this fact. Many of those attending our city
mission-schools have passed most of their lives in
the streets. Of the Savior most of them know little
or nothing. “I knowed a whole heap about Him;
but I done forgot it all,” said a big- boy when ad-
mitted to one of our schools. A girl fifteen years
of age thought that we celebrate Christmas “because
Lincoln made the Niggers free.” Most of them
have not learned good manners and order. Many